There are those XBOX 360 owners that know of the RROD and dread it, those that are blissfully ignorant, and those that have experienced the Red Ring of Death.  The XBOX 360 has a ring of lights around the power switch that normally turn green during startup or when a wireless control connects to the console.  The ring of lights turns red (except for the upper right quadrant) when some fatal problem keeps the XBOX 360 from operating.  This is Microsoft’s Web page for us lucky people that got the RROD:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/907534

This problem and other Zune issues have earned their own Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems

As I recall, Microsoft set aside a large cash reserve to address warranty issues such as these.  Perhaps more than a billion dollars.  I could not locate a source to verify the reserve amount.

We have an XBOX 360 that is about two years old.  We were treated to it’s Red Ring of Death Monday evening.  Somewhere, a devil got its pitchfork.

Today Microsoft’s hardware problems multiplied by (potentially) a million or more.  The original 30G Zune apparently has a lockup issue that happens on January 31, 2008.  Happy New Year’s Eve!  I verified the issue by turning on my Zune today and it is now locked up quite solidly.  I’m waiting for the battery to draw down completely.  Some Web reports state that removing the battery resets the unit and resolves the lockup.  If so, perhaps just letting it drain and waiting a few hours before the recharge will also fix the issue.

I hope Microsoft is able to address my XBOX 360 repair quickly and cheaply, and soon cures the Zune lockup.  Better yet, management should resolve to be a little more brilliant and a lot less sloppy in their consumer products in 2009, then stick to that resolution.  I’ve seen so many lectures on reputation in social networks and business, some from Microsoft thought leaders.  Well, it’s high time you applied some of those principles back at the ranch instead of the lecture circuit.  As they say, just do it.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-31-2008

This is a great day in the Lounsbery forest.  It is a sunny 45 degree day with a predicted high temperature of 54 degrees.  Lisa and I got up and exchanged presents.  She gave me a Belgian waffle maker (like you would find at a finer motel at their free breakfast bar).  She also got the recipe and ingredients for pumpkin waffles, which we made for breakfast.  It doesn’t get much better than Belgian pumpkin waffles, I’m telling you.

I gave Lisa a red robe, which will keep her warm during the days that we drop the thermostat to save the planet and cut the heating bill (not necessarily in that order).  Since she asked for that specific robe, I was happy to get it for her.  On the other hand, our Santa Cats had other ideas.

In addition to the presents we got each other, our four cats apparently got into the spirit of the season with two more presents for their human house pets.  That’s what the labels on the presents said, so it must be true.  The Santa Cats gave Lisa a digital picture frame (perfect for the desk at work) and I got a remote controlled helicopter.  I promise not to chase the cats with the helicopter.

I hope all of you readers out there have a Merry Christmas.  This is a magical time of the year.  If you think I write like a Grinch most of the time, then this post is proof that the Christmas magic is real.  Here’s hoping that you share some of that magic this year and for many years to come.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-25-2008

In the last few weeks, a leading politician has called for economic stimulus by hiring “unemployed” people to “rebuild” the sagging, ancient, crumbling “public” infrastructure.  Our roads are crap, public transportation is crap, broadband is crap, today’s economic disaster is a wonderful “opportunity” to fix the ills of the public infrastructure and build our way to American Nirvana.  The media and disaffected bloggers have taken the cue to point out that America is “behind” the rest of the world, with outdated infrastructure.  Everything we have was built by the WPA during the Great Depression.

There have been many points in history when big lies go over really well.  Apparently, even though most of America haven’t a clue what a deep recession or depression will mean for them next year, the time has come to trot out the really big lies.  Lies that will be exaggerated, repeated, and believed by countless people we listen to.  It is amazing to me how the half-baked, desperate ideas government tried during the Great Depression suddenly make perfect sense now, without any comparable motivation or need.

I’ve actually read people complain about the drab and dingy Kennedy International Airport, so much worse than the Hong Kong Airport built in 1998.  They imply that all airports are sad, obsolete examples of vile architecture.  I’ve read people complain about the sad state of public interstate highways, which were built in the Great Depression.  The leading politician wants to put people to work in order to take America “in a new direction”.  What I’m sensing is not so much reasoned action as panicked lemmings running for the nearest cliff as they shout “We’ve found the new direction!  Hurry up, come this way!”

You know, it is an easy matter to read about the Great Depression on the Internet.  There are many analysis of the event, descriptions of the American government’s tactics, and even history of the Great Depression’s impact on other countries.  I expect my leaders to be able to read and understand the same fundamentals I see there and in any good textbook.  More important, the legions of people in the media could do no damage to their minds and credibility by understanding real history.  Of course, it takes more than wishing to improve the situation, smart people need to speak out and make sure that we pick a direction that is actually better, not a well-worn trail to the cliff.

At least you will if you are smarter than a lemming.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-24-2008

I am continually amazed at my fellow software developers.  When they are presented with a loose development team, they want rigor and process.  When presented with rigor and process, they want the process to get out of their way.  They want to get the voice of the customer until they have to sit in a meeting.  And most of all, they want a supportive management that will set up all those things so they can do great things with code.

Perhaps this is just human nature.  Certainly we get a lot of conflictive teaching and reality.  Those of us that get schooling in project management rarely get to apply even a few principles from class.  That goes double for the folks that actually have management jobs.  Those of us that experience some of the failings of real project management are usually stymied by the petty office politics that drive budgets and work items.  In these tight economic times, it is amazing how the darlings of those amazing Silicon Valley firms are blogging about some of the most bone-headed management and software development practices I’ve ever heard of as they are shown the door.  Perhaps we are all mired in a sea of confusion.

There is one situation that just begs for reality-based goals and deliverables in software development.  When we write software for other software developers, does it make sense to communicate how it works or how to use it?  Universally, developers believe that their delivered application is the statement of requirements, the source code is the programmer’s manual for the next version.  Nothing more is needed past the existence of the application itself.  It seems that this philosophy extends to developer tools and frameworks.  And if the tools are complex, then the communication suffers even more.

But we all know that communication is expensive.  How much is enough, especially when the complex tool may have millions of lines of code, several languages, several frameworks, and several plug-in architectures and display environments?  I think it is safe to say that such a system deserves perhaps a book or two for every major system or sub-product.  It especially needs overviews that show how all the pieces fit together and interoperate, with examples.  And when major new technologies are being introduced for such a grand tool, they deserve more than some videos, a “Hello World” presentation, and some podcasts.  If the various teams involved in producing the various parts of a complex tool are not on the same page, maybe providing the correct page is worth every penny.

How much communication is enough?  When small customers with limited resources don’t give up scaling your wall of complexity.  That means that you must listen to the small customers and make sure they can tell you about the problems.  That means responding in a meaningful way.  The customer wants to create a solution with your tool, they are invested, and nobody wins if the enormous resources invested in the tool don’t deliver an achievable solution to the customer because of a simple lack of communication.  When small customers provide enthusiastic feedback and community the communication is on the right track.

It should be easy to see that existential software stands on its own, but a real product depends on communication with customers before and after delivery.  Until some magic happens in the universe, process and documentation during development are the best ways to deliver communication for complex systems through their life cycle.  Just as programmers expect great support from their development tools, regular customers should get real instruction and communication for other types of applications.  And you can still get their attention with slick videos.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-23-2008

When we got a second XBOX 360 (refurb) to be the Media Extender, DVD Player, and game console in our basement game room, we anticipated getting full use of the machine in all those roles.  In fact, it has been a great DVD player.  The other roles have been hobbled by identity crises created by the XBOX product team.  I’m sure this is not a malicious act on their part, just ignorance in action.

Two problems are a direct result of the inability of the XBOX software to cope with a home network.  The laser-like focus of the XBOX team seems to exclude a network that doesn’t directly connect to one Media Center PC with one XBOX in one house.  Perhaps it is a failure to count at all.

We have, as it happens, two Media Center PCs in our one house.  The Media Center PC in the living room drives our television and now has no other role.  That’s what happens as Windows operating systems slow to a crawl with age.  I’m sure the living room Media Center will be rebuilt soon to try to restore its lost youth and vigor.  The other Media Center PC is my desktop workstation, the once mighty Blue Monster.  Repaving that machine will be a major, lengthy, and painful job.  So much for four cores and four GB of RAM.

Each XBOX is, of course, connected to a different Media Center.  It should be obvious that any option to share a Media Center PC is, well, nonexistent.  Perhaps the simple act of trying of connect to the same Media Center just works and it is possible to choose the desired PC is various ways.  After all, any PC in the house that isn’t connected to an XBOX used to constantly remind us of it’s desperate need to hook up.  You should have seen the flurry of messages I used to get when starting up my laptop at home.  I still get lots of messages, but they have changed over the months.

After so many great experiences in the past, I am not going to try to hook up more than one XBOX to a Media Center.  Or an XBOX to more than one Media Center.  I have visions of my house burning down as some evil feedback loop runs out of control before I can shut down the power.

I can avoid the connection problem by living with a crippled network, but the XBOX still has restrictions that I can’t ignore.  You see, the XBOX Live account associated with one XBOX can be “transferred” to another XBOX (so I can access XBOX Marketplace and use that new nifty avatar thingy).  So I can use the game machine in the basement.  Too bad the original XBOX doesn’t want to give up it’s old identity.  In fact, although I’ve tried to set it to use Lisa’s account, it still insists on trying to “recover” my account (which immediately makes the basement XBOX forget my account).  Apparently I can spend money, get a memory module, and put my account on the module and carry that to the basement, too.  I just don’t think the upstairs XBOX will quit whining about my “lost” account if I do that.

I hoped the XBOX console software update would fix the XBOX identity crisis.  Nope.  Having seen how Microsoft Help degrades with every software upgrade, I know that I won’t find any meaningful solution now.  The product team is always looking forward to the next great feature set.  There are videos galore about avatars, but no help for the XBOX fan with more than one console in their house. 

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-21-2008

As the folks on Twitter have heard, we’ve been able to trap one of the noisy and destructive raccoons that occasionally invade our attic.  I used a marshmallow for bait and it worked very well.  Our neighbor Terry had the same raccoon problem and recommended the bait.  After trapping the critter, I drove out to Norris Lake and released it in the park there.  I was concerned that the critter might take the opportunity to take a crack at it’s jailer, but the release went fine.  It’s amazing how fast a little raccoon can move when it is motivated.

While the traps we got are fine for raccoon, squirrel, and other small vermin, vermin come in all sizes.  For example, the door between the workshop and the basement has deep claw marks in the trim about six feet above the floor.  Since the home sellers were a quiet lot (a little too quiet), we never learned how that happened, but we think a bear, coyote, or some other dangerous vermin was involved.  It just makes sense to be a good, well-armed part of the neighborhood vermin and crime watch.  Lisa and I are graduating from trappers to verminators.

Yesterday we took the NRA basic gun course at Austin’s Tennessee Firearm Gun Shop in Oak Ridge.  This was perfect for Lisa and I.  Lisa has never shot a gun (not even a BB gun) and the only time I’ve fired bullets is during the Hurst, Texas Citizens Police Academy.  And I attended that Citizens Police Academy ten years ago.

We really enjoyed the course.  The instructors were great.  Lisa scored a 460 on the range and I scored a 478 (perfect is 480).  It’s too bad that the school kept the targets.  I would have liked to post mine somewhere on the outside of the house for potential burglers to admire.  A few more bureaucratic steps, some gun shopping, and we will be able to protect ourselves much better.  That’s very important when you live in the woods during these trying times.

-- Walter Lounsbery, 12-14-2008